Overtime in NZ: is there a legal rate, and can you be made to work it?

No legal overtime rate

No Act sets a rate for overtime. Employment New Zealand says pay for overtime or extra shifts has to be agreed between you and your employer and written into your employment agreement. It might be a higher rate, such as time and a half after 40 hours. It might be your normal hourly rate. Or it might be built into your salary, with no extra pay at all.

The one time the law does set a higher rate is a public holiday. Under section 50 of the Holidays Act 2003, if you work any part of a public holiday, you are paid at least time and a half for the time you work. That is a public holiday rule, not an overtime rule: a long Tuesday earns nothing extra unless your agreement says so.

So the first place to look is your agreement, for words like "overtime", "additional hours" or "penal rates". If it pays a higher rate, Calculate.co.nz has an overtime pay calculator and a time and a half calculator to check a week's pay against it.

When you can be asked to work extra

Section 67C of the Employment Relations Act 2000 says agreed hours of work must be in your employment agreement. They can include the number of guaranteed hours, the days you work, your start and finish times, and any flexibility in the days or times. Employment New Zealand adds that those are generally the only hours you need to be at work, and that an employer cannot change agreed hours without your agreement.

Many agreements, especially salaried ones, also say you will do additional hours "as reasonably required". Employment New Zealand says an agreement like that should include any compensation for the overtime. Whether a particular request is reasonable depends on the agreement and the circumstances, but asking is not the same as requiring: your employer can always ask, and you can always agree.

Even where you have agreed, the extra hours still count. They count towards your pay, towards the minimum wage check, and towards your own tiredness, which the next sections cover.

Availability and saying no

An availability provision is a clause that requires you to be available to accept any work your employer makes available. Section 67D allows one only if all of these are true:

• your agreement sets agreed hours of work, including guaranteed hours, and the availability is on top of those guaranteed hours;
• your employer has genuine reasons based on reasonable grounds for the clause and for the number of hours it covers; and
• the clause pays you reasonable compensation for making yourself available.

A clause that does not meet those conditions cannot be enforced against you. If you are on a salary, you and your employer can agree that the salary includes that compensation, but it has to be agreed.

Section 67E then gives you the right to refuse: if your agreement has no availability provision that pays reasonable compensation, you are entitled to refuse work beyond your guaranteed hours. Section 67F says your employer must not treat you worse for it, such as by giving you fewer shifts, the worst shifts, less training or a dismissal. Breaching those rules can be grounds for a personal grievance.

Employment New Zealand's example is a worker with no guaranteed hours who said no to a shift because of childcare, then found her shifts cut and the unpopular ones handed to her. Its advice was to keep a copy of her shift history from before she said no, to show the change. That is a good reason to keep your own record from the start.

Maximum hours, rest and the 40-hour rule

The 40-hour rule is in the Minimum Wage Act 1983, not the Employment Relations Act. Section 11B says every employment agreement "must fix at not more than 40 the maximum number of hours (exclusive of overtime)" in a week, unless you and your employer agree a higher number. So ordinary hours above 40 need your agreement, written into your agreement. Overtime sits outside that number, which is why the rule does not cap the total you work.

Can you be made to work seven days a week? Section 11B says that where the maximum is 40 hours or fewer, the parties "must endeavour" to fit the hours into no more than five days. That is a duty to try, not a ban. But if your agreement sets the days you work, as section 67C allows, adding a sixth or seventh day changes your agreed hours, and that needs your agreement.

Long days still come with breaks. A shift of more than 6 hours gives you two paid 10-minute rest breaks and one unpaid 30-minute meal break, and longer shifts more; our article on rest and meal breaks has the full table.

Then there is fatigue. Under section 36 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a business must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of its workers, and WorkSafe names long hours, irregular hours and night work as causes of fatigue. Its guidance tells businesses to negotiate with workers if overtime is required, and to monitor and limit it. You have a duty too, to take reasonable care for your own safety. If the hours you are asked to work feel unsafe, Employment New Zealand says to raise it with your employer, your union or WorkSafe.

The minimum wage across every hour

Section 6 of the Minimum Wage Act entitles you to at least the minimum rate for your work, whatever your agreement says. From 1 April 2026 the adult minimum wage is $23.95 an hour, and the starting-out and training minimum wage is $19.16. Employment New Zealand is clear that this applies to every hour worked, overtime as much as normal hours.

On an hourly wage, every extra hour must be paid at no less than that rate. On a salary, overtime can quietly drag your hourly pay under it. Employment New Zealand's rough check is to divide your total pay before tax by the hours you worked in the pay period. A $55,000 salary is $1,057.69 a week. Over a 40-hour week that is $26.44 an hour; over 45 hours it is $23.50, below the adult minimum wage. The line is crossed just past 44 hours.

The law expects your employer to be able to show it. For salaried staff, section 130 says the employer must record any extra hours needed to show minimum entitlements are met. Our article on unpaid overtime and your real hourly rate works through what extra hours cost you after tax.

Keeping a record of the extra hours

If you ever need to raise unpaid overtime, the strongest evidence is a record you made at the time: the date, when you started, when you finished, the breaks you took, and a note of who asked you to stay. Written on the day, it is hard to argue with. Pieced together months later from memory, it is easy to.

Then compare it with your payslip every pay period. If they differ, ask about it early and in writing. You can also ask your employer for your wages and time record, which they must give you immediately, for any time in the last six years, and Employment New Zealand says arrears of wages can go back six years too. Our guide to keeping your own timesheet covers what to write down and how to ask.

Your Timesheets at jobtracker.co.nz makes that record easy to keep as it happens: start the timer when you start, stop it when you leave, or type the start, finish and unpaid break afterwards, with a note for the evening you were asked to stay. Every change is kept in the entry's history, and logging is free on every plan. It does not check your pay; it gives you your own record to compare with your payslip. If the two will not match and talking does not fix it, Employment New Zealand on 0800 20 90 20 or your union can help.

Keep the extra hours on your own record